by Mahmoud Fouly

CAIRO, June 9 (Xinhua) — Colorful flowers, ornament plants, shrubs and seedlings, as well as gardening and landscaping tools and accessories, are all neatly displayed by dozens of exhibitors at the 90th edition of Spring Flowers Exhibition held at the Agricultural Museum in Egypt’s capital Cairo.

“We visit the flower expo every year. Sometimes we need some plants, and the nice thing is that we find everything we need here in one place,” said Nehal Rasmy, a young woman who came with her husband to buy large pots for planting some shrubs and seedlings in their home garden.

“It is so fun to spend the day here,” she added, while her husband was moving several pots of blooming flowers to their car parked outside the museum.

The annual flora expo, both the largest and oldest of its kind in Egypt, opened in late May and has another three weeks to go.

“It is like a festival for all producers of ornamental plants and other agricultural products. We look forward to it every year,” said Hany Mosaad, an agricultural engineer in charge of the pavilion of an exhibiting company.

Near Mosaad’s pavilion, a landscaping company was exhibiting fountains and artificial waterfalls as throngs of visitors were taking photos and selfies with the breathtaking views in the background.

“For us, the exhibition is the interface in which we display our new ideas and designs just as they appear when installed in a real garden, unlike exhibiting in a showroom with a limited space,” Mansour Farrag, the company’s chairman and managing director, told Xinhua.

“Our new products this year are new designs of wooden fountains as well as artificial plants that we used to import,” said the Egyptian businessman, adding his company exports fountains and artificial waterfalls to a number of Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.

Ahmed Hamed, a veteran agricultural engineer, was picking with his daughter from hundreds of cactus pots charmingly organized in a display area.

“It is my third time to visit the exhibition this week. It’s a precious annual occasion for me to see the various types of ornamental plants and the innovations in the field of cactuses,” Hamed said.

“It’s a joyful opportunity. I invite all people to come and enjoy seeing the plants, the cactuses and the creativity of exhibitors,” he added.

The exhibition used to be held earlier in spring at the nearby Orman Botanic Garden but was delayed and relocated this year because of the development work in the garden.

Still, held in an area of more than 20,000 square meters, this year’s event gathers over 200 specialized exhibitors and attracts between 3,000 and 5,000 visitors on a daily basis despite the hot weather, according to Mahmoud Atta, the undersecretary for horticulture of the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture.

“We invite students of schools and universities, as well as everyone interested in beauty, thought and civilization, to visit the exhibition,” said Atta, also the general supervisor of the ministry’s administration for agricultural museums and fairs.